France

Ch. Lafleur

Chateau Lafleur Pomerol

Bordeaux

Pomerol

Takes its time in the glass to unroll, as true in 2024 as in any other vintage of Lafleur. Dark fruit character, leafy cassis bud alongside blackcurrant, gunsmoke, poppy seeds, black tea, crayon, even the beginnings of white truffle. Remarkable how different the structure, fruit quality and tannins here are to many others in the vintage - if you are planning to secure any of the big names, this should be on your shortlist. Builds in intensity in the glass, certainly you don't need to worry if you are a collector and don't want to miss a vintage. Harvest 20 to 30 September. They did no green harvesting here, and with the terroir plus careful work in the vineyard, the yields are in mid to high 30s. Lafleur team working under Julie and Baptiste Guinaudeau. 25% new oak.

Inside Bordeaux

Deep garnet-purple colored. Needs a lot of shaking to unlock notes of fresh red cherries, black raspberries, and blackberries, opening out to hints of lilac, Sichuan pepper, underbrush, and fertile loam. The medium-bodied palate delivers a firm frame of grainy tannins and just enough freshness to support the tightly knit red and black berry layers, finishing on a lingering fragrant earth note.

by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW

A blend of 54% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc) and 46% Merlot, the 2023 Lafleur has a deep garnet-purple color. It slowly unfurls with very pure scents of wild blueberries and violets, opening out to notes of boysenberry preserves, licorice, rose bud tea, sassafras, and fragrant earth. The medium to full-bodied palate is deceptively ethereal, yet amazingly dense, with super-fine, pixilated tannins and seamless freshness, finishing very long and fragrant. Wow!

Creamy blackberry, squid ink, cocoa bean, liquorice, crushed rose petals, intense, touch of soy, broth, clear salinity and grip. This is a well that you can fall into, could almost be io the Left Bank here because there is a sombre edge to it but as it opens, it shows its more joyful side, and this is a wonderful wine. As I said for the En Primeur sample, 'it provides a welcome sense of continuity in a vintage where the byword is excess'. 25% new oak for ageing, with the other 75% in barrels that were used at 9 months old after ageing the white wines. Harvest 7 and 17 September. Jean-Baptiste Guinaudeau owner and winemaker, along with an exceptionally invested team, harvest September 3 to 17.

A blend of 48% Merlot and 52% Cabernet Franc (Bouchet), the 2021 Lafleur has a deep garnet-purple color. After a swirl or two, the nose erupts with classic notes of fresh plums, boysenberries, and pencil shavings, leading to suggestions of tar, tilled soil, black truffles, and underbrush. Medium-bodied, the palate is built like a brick house, featuring a solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and great tension to support the muscular black fruits, finishing long and earthy.

The 2020 vintage was less of a shock perhaps for Lafleur than many other estates - they travel less than many estates, and already spend much of their time in the vines. Stunning texture, knitted down but rippling with silk and velvet, opening up to show violet, cherry, mandarin, cocoa bean, black truffle, mint, stretches out langoriously, with pulses of electricity and points of energy, tension and sinewy tannins. Showcases an oyster shell salinity that don't usually associate with a solar vintage. They do such a great job here of illuminating individual flavours, of bringing definition to the overall palate, and this is a superb Lafleur. Hard to fault. Winemaker Baptiste Guineaudeau.

Made from 53% Merlot and 47% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc), the 2019 Lafleur is deep garnet-purple in color. It slowly grows in the glass, emerging with scents of blueberry compote, prunes, and dark chocolate, followed by suggestions of garrigue, cedar, and wild sage. The full-bodied palate is firm, grainy, and hedonic, featuring loads of savory nuances and finishing on a lingering aniseed note.

Always a wine that requires time in bottle, and the 2018 is extremely closed down at three years old. Cabernet Franc dominates in expression, with layers of cool blueberry and blackcurrant fruits, needing a good 30 minutes in the glass to begin to open up and let out the raspberry leaf, peony floral notes. Packed in among the fine tannins are fennel, soy, smoked earth and slate, and this is a stunning Lafleur, from those carefully, thoughfully tended 4.5ha of vines. 25% new oak.

Stunning aromatic intensity curling out of the glass, violets and peonies, just a gorgeous wine that is hard to resist even at only eight years old, with plenty of time ahead before it fully softens. Luscious opening, then flooded with liqourice, black chocolate, cocoa beans, sage, linear, with contained power that grips on to the palate. 20% new oak, Guinaudeau family owners.

Deep garnet-brick in color, the 2014 Lafleur needs a lot of swirling to coax out subtle scents of forest floor, menthol, and baked cherries, with emerging suggestions of iron ore, incense, and potpourri. The medium to full-bodied palate is packed with seductive red and black berry preserves layers, framed by firm, rounded tannins and bags of freshness, finishing long and minerally.

Medium garnet in color, the 2013 Lafleur starts off quite herbal, with notions of rosemary and wild sage giving way to a core of raspberry coulis and kirsch, plus hints of crushed rocks, lavender, and tobacco leaf. The medium-bodied palate delivers a good core of fruit with an herbal undercurrent and firm, chewy tannins, finishing savory.

The 2012 Lafleur is medium to deep garnet colored. It features profound scents of dried cherries, prunes, and wild thyme plus underlying suggestions of camphor, iron ore, and cumin seed. The medium to full-bodied palate is rich and multi-layered, supported by rounded tannins and just enough freshness, finishing with an herbal lift.

Delivers Lafleur electricity, if still a little serious at almost 20 years old. This remains a Cabernet Franc dominant vintage in its feel and aromatics, if not in blend, and the austerity of the early years has not entirely disappeared. Give it a few moments to unwind and show those seductive brushed tannins that cushion grilled black fruits, slate, graphite, smoked earth, cumin, black pepper, steel, violets and roses. Jacques Guinaudeau owner and winemaker, and this was still just four vintages since he had become sole owner, following 15 years renting from his aunts (first both, then one) the Robin sisters. Harvest October 8 to 14, after a challenging vintage that needed the attention to detail that Lafleur always delivers.

I tried to restrain myself, sipping this rare and stunning wine slowly but surely, but it was almost impossible not to down it in one, it was just so good. Supple and finely-boned tannins, a ton of white truffle and tobacco notes, gentle smoked earth, tannins still holding on to the now fully softened red fruits. Shared by a generous friend at 67 Pall Mall - and even luckier, I was simply walking past their table with lucky timing! Jacques Guinaudeau had arrived at the estate just two years earlier, in 1984, leasing the vines from his aunt Marie Robin. It took decades to come around, but right now it is singing.

2024	No priceNot available	Extraordinary
2023	No priceNot available	Extraordinary
2022	No priceNot available	Extraordinary
2021	No priceAvailable	Extraordinary
2020	No priceAvailable	Extraordinary

Category	Red wine
Vinmonopolet no.
Producer	Ch. Lafleur
Vintages	2024
Country	France, Bordeaux, Pomerol
Bottle	75 cl

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Sugar	g/l

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